Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016 • 1–4 p.m.
Stephen Mojzsis, Professor, Geological Sciences
Location: Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building, Butcher Auditorium
Professor Mojzsis will discuss his new research on whether life on Mars was possible. Ancient Mars was a battered place, pelted by comets and asteroids that melted and fractured its crust and covered large areas with intense heat and shattered rocks. This may sound pretty inhospitable, but impact-induced heating may have melted near-surface ice and made hot spring systems, forming an environment where life could take hold.
Doors open at 12:30 p.m.; advance registration is not required.
About the presenter
Stephen Mojzsis is a geology professor in the Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder where he directs the Collaborative for Research in Origins (CRiO) funded by the John Templeton Foundation-Ffame Origins program. He is also a distinguished visiting professor at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, and has held visiting academic positions in France at the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, and the Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CRPG) in Nancy, and in Japan at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. His research seeks to understand the physical and chemical conditions on planets that lead to emergence of a biosphere.
